Plot loops

Closely knit community in the suburbs of the south of Tehran. It’s a poor area. Everyone knows each other; there is no abstract government expressed in the public positions of clerics, Basij, police – they all have first names, they all grew up together with the grocer, the hairdresser, the teacher, and the unemployed that hangs out at the grocer’s. Because of this lack of abstract power, the feel of the community is much less tense than what we’ve experienced in the bigger cities. Aside from the titles, these people would be the same in any system.

Sitting on a carpet, lunching with a local family, a moment of revelation when the talking head of an Iranian TV host appears on the obligatory screen in the corner. It’s Channel One TV, broadcasting from Independence Avenue in Woodland Hills in California. The slick host was the same man that gave us a tour of the facilities when we visited Channel One a month ago. We have footage of us in the studio on either side of him as he announces to the camera: “Iran welcomes the European Initiative in Iran!” There is a sublime truth to this loop in our narrative, No words can express the gap between the manicured world of California and the sitting room in the run-down humble living quarters in this part of messy Tehran – the grandmother going on in incomprehensible Farsi about her love of dancing despite weak knees, her son talking in incomprehensible Farsi about his beloved motorcycle. – The guests trying to swallow a second round of some sort of pickled fruit that reeks of perfume, with the consistency of rubber.